A competitor shows her tattoos at the MBK Tattoo Contest in a shopping mall in Bangkok October 23, 2014. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Spectators pass through security screening ahead of the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square in New York, on Sunday, December 31, 2017. (Photo by Peter Morgan/AP Photo)

Wisconsin forward Carter Gilmore, center, fouls UCLA guard Dylan Andrews, right, during the second half against of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, January 21, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/AP Photo)

A performer wearing costumes walk on stilts before a show during a lantern fair at the beginning of Chinese Lunar New Year, in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, February 11, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Half-naked girls against speed driving in Nizhny, Novgorod Region, Russia on September 5, 2016. Russian drivers are getting quite an eyeful in a bid to make them slow down thanks to topless women flashing speed limit signs at an accident blackspot. A trial of the road safety campaign demonstrated that it helped lower the speed of traffic near a pedestrian crossing in Severny village. (Photo by YouTube)

A female soldier from the honour guards prepares for a welcoming ceremony for Uruguay's President Tabare Vazquez at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, October 18, 2016. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

A 40-foot sculpture of the swimmer Rebecca Adlington was unveiled at the Serpentine in London’s Hyde Park on July 25, 2016 to launch a campaign by Kelloggs to encourage the public to support Team GB at the Rio Olympics. (Photo by David Parry/PA Wire/Barcroft Images)